(ANS – Bratislava) –On 19 and 20 September at Bratislava the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and the Salesians from the Czech Republic and Slovakia combined to present a new project on educommunication – education in the management of communication. The programme, addressed especially to Leaders in Salesian Youth Centres, involves four courses spread over two years and will conclude with a final festival in which the productions of the students will be on show.

The purpose of this initiative is to help young people through lessons given by professionals, activities and workshops, undertsand the values and the dangers of various forms of communication media and their influence on society. It is hoped to offer youngsters the opportunity to learn how to use the media in a critical manner, and give them the necessary skills to transmit to others, through the media, life values.

At the beginning of September in both countries there was an introductory day with the participation of the Superiors, both of the Salesains and of the FMA, as well as of the Association of the Salesians-Cooperators, and the Volunteers of Don Bosco. During a moment of prayer and the presentation of the programme for the course, the Superiors gave the students a blank page of a newspaper: the symbol of a totally new experience which will be filled by the youngsters with their positive results. The course itself will begin in October, forst in the Czech Republic and then in Slovakia. The concluding international festival will be held in the summer of 2011.

“This sort of an initiative is the sign that our family is alive”, Fr Karol Manik, Superior of the Salesian Slovak Province (SLK) said. The FMA Provincial added: “I really hope the students will be open and receptive, so that they may become enthusiastic evangelisers of others – also through the media”.